Can we do this without a lawyer?

MrTexasS1,

If you have 2/3rds of owners ready to remove these directors, why can't you all achieve a quorum at the regular annual meeting and then vote the bums out?

In general nationwide many HOA/COA owners fail to remove directors at special meetings because the owners do not know how to dot all the legal i's and cross all the legal t's. Remember that "possession is 9/10ths of the law." Here the latter means that these directors hold a lot of financial and other powers (including using the HOA attorney against dissidents).

By contrast at a regular annual meeting, it is much harder for the incumbent directors to suppress the dissidents.

Do you know whether your condo is under Chapter 81 (pre-1994 condos) or Chapter 82 (post Dec 31, 1993 condos)?

Is there anything else in your bylaws about removing board members and special homeowner meetings? Usually, homeowners have to present a petition to hold a special meeting - in this case, it would be to discuss a recall of the board. At that meeting, you'd vote to remove them and I suspect that's where that 2/3rds percentage comes in.

When it comes to removing a board member (or the whole crew), it's important that this is done according to the documents because if you don't, the people who get sacked may get their own attorney and sue to set aside the whole mess - and they might win. Take a good look at your documents first - although you don't need an attorney, if people are confused about what the documents say, it doesn't hurt to have one look it over. If you're part of a small group that wants to pursue this, pass the hat and get a referral from the bar association. If the documents have provisions for a special homeowners meeting, use that to compel the board to explain themselves. If they ignore you or tell you to go play in traffic, you may need the attorney to send them a nastygram. This is a meeting where you need as many people as possible to show up, so prepare to send letters and knock on doors to make your case.

In case you haven't noticed, these sorts of things can lead to lots of chaos and doesn't happen overnight, so brace yourself. If you succeed, you'll need a new group ready to step up (yes, you may have to be among them). There are old conversations on this website about recalling boards - read a few to see what might work and avoid, but bring your questions back to this conversation so you can get updated information. Good luck!

"An easier answer would be to start talking to people, obtain proxies and vote the Board out at the next election."

Tim we already tried that. The board sent out the meeting notice as stealthily as possible - buried in a long boring letter by USPS. They didn't put up any signs or send any emails- even though they use our emails for our accounts. So a lot of people didn't know about it. My group tried very hard to tell people about the meeting. Because of my grou's efforts we had a much larger turnout than normal but still did not achieve quorum. Since quorum was not achieved, the board announced they would not open the meeting and there would be no election. Since that time they have not posted anything about decisions or meetings of the board. We can only guess who they appointed to fill the empty seats. No notifications of meetings, nothing. Radio silence. They also never delivered the audit required by bylaws and state law. And they have been doing other things that are very bad.

Any suggestions are welcome. Our idea is to try to vote them out. Per ShellaH's advice up there we will be reading and re-reading our by-laws very carefully and trying to figure out how to follow to the letter.

oh I just thought of a great idea. Something like a gofundme to raise funds to hire an attorney

Our next annual meeting is supposed to be in January 2027

Our bylaws say 2/3rds are required to remove a director and 40% are required to call a special meeting.

Texas Business Organization 22.155 says 10% of members can demand a special meeting.

The board and management company are behaving in such a way it's really easy to persuade people to join us or become proxy signers. Our little group has no way to prove if they are helping themselves to the money or not because they refused to let us examine the records and have not provided an audit. The management company treats unit owners disrespectfully, extremely rude on every interaction. The rule enforcement is erratic and mean spirited. The board president talked down to everyone in the last not-an-annual-meeting. Maintenance is not being done reliably. I am very sad that people would behave like this.

My no-lawyer idea is to generate proxies in the same style as the proxies the board sent out for the last annual meeting. Except these proxies are for a special meeting with the date to be determined as soon as we have 2/3rds signed the proxies. The meeting agenda will be on the proxy form. Then start notifying unit owners of their rights under Texas Law to open meetings, audits, and that permits for structural work are required.

Even if we fail to get 2/3rds, these moves are likely to increase our group strength and influence. Last year it was just two of us. Right now there's six. There's about another 10 who agree with us and are reliable proxy signers. Try to keep the group going.

you need 40% of owners to sign a petition to call a special meeting. That's the first hurdle. If you get that petition to call a special meeting, the board is required to call the meeting. for the special recall meeting, from what you've said, it sounds like you need 2/3 of all owners to sign a proxie or show up to vote at the special meeting.. it's a lot of work. ,,, fyi, your bylaw percentage required defined what the percentage needed will be. TBOC percentage sets the minimum, but association documents can andoften are set higher requirements.

I disagree. Texas's nonprofit corporation statute (BO 22) has several sections that state 'Unless the bylaws provide otherwise... '

BO 22.155 has no such qualifier. Per BO 22.155, legally only one-tenth of owners are needed to call a special meeting of the owners.

Of course, and as I noted earlier, possession is 9/10ths of the law. The Board has much of the resources to call a special meeting. If the board does not want to call a special meeting, then MrTexasS1 and his fellow interested owners will have to fight the board, preferably with an attorney.

You are the one who asserted that the bylaws Trump TBOC re the number needed to call a special meeting.

On the other hand you are right to bring up the Condo Acts (Chapters yada 81 and 82). Section 82.108 applies to all condos, regardless of the year the Declaration was recorded.

In statutory construction, when one statute is more apposite than another, the more apposite statute controls.

From 82.108:
"Unless the declaration provides otherwise, special meetings of the association may be called by the president, a majority of the board, or unit owners having at least 20 percent of the votes in the association."

If the declaration is silent, then the magic number is 20%.

Still the bigger hurdle is getting the board to agree.

tim,, you do not draw up proxies.. you create a petition to call a special meeting.. once you get the petition, you present it to the board secretary and legally they are reaquired to call a special meeting with a certain ammount of time. (usually within 30 days. no less than 10 but check your documents).. once you get the petition.. and the special meeting is called.. THATS WHEN YOU CREATE PROXIES and get signatures. Be careful, if the board is out to trip up your efforts.. Proxies need to be very specific.. they need to state the date and time of the meeting, and owner name and signature and designated proxy, use chat gpt and after the give you an mockup,, tell chat gpt to stress test their result.. ask them for a valid proxie for a texas condominium association special meeting of owners for the purposeo recalling a board members.. Remember, in general, you collect get proxies for the specail meeting of owners after you turn in the petition to call a special meeting and the board schedules it. Now this is the way it's supposed to work. YMMV. First, before you start this process, have you requested the financials and documents you are seeking in writing in accordance with 82. ?

Who said otherwise?

Either way, if a Board resists this idea, and since possession is 9/10ths of the law, dissident owners facing a rogue board may be stuck going to court or at least threatening same.

Sometimes a threat of legal action will force the HOA to report the threat to the insurer. Then the insurer will involve a lawyer. Then the lawyer might take more steps to get the board to follow the law. Or the lawyer may help the board dig into its position more.